ACROSS LITE PUZZLE: [ SUPERHERO REJECTS]
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]
PROGRAM: [Java]
PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ SUPERHERO REJECTS]
PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]
Thirteen years ago today my very first crossword puzzle was published in the Times. (Historians take note: visit Jim Horne’s website for the exhibit.) It should be stated that the 8/7/06 puzzle was my third crossword sale, and the next two published went in reverse order of acceptance (all of these sales were exclusively for the Times, by the way. Shortly thereafter I began sending to Games Magazine and other markets.) I’ve come a long way, baby, but it bears repeating: none of these puzzles would be sales nowadays.
Since we’re still in 1996, this one (that would be the third puzzle run) is the first-ever crossword I made. That’s right. First-Ever. There were no other crosswords/half crosswords/aborted grids/rejuked themes/etc. before it. And yeah, it was a sale to the New York Times. Beat that. (Historians take note: Will accidentally chopped off my first name in the by-line on that one. So, if you’ve been paying attention, it was by Emmett Quigley. Good times.)
Thirteen years ago. Where’d the time go? I remember writing to Will that I I’d run out of theme ideas around the time these ran (hah). It’s also worth noting that in a remarkable bit of symmetry, I will be dead exactly 13 years from today.
Now that we’ve tackled the past and the future, let’s do today, shall we? A couple weeks back “Miracle” Matt Gaffney asked me to participate in a little experiment. His proposal was to see if he could make a puzzle after he was given a specific entry from a stranger. To complicate matters, that entry had to be used as a theme entry. Well, anyway, Matt asked if I would participate in that have-to-make-a-puzzle-with-a-specific-theme-entry-stipulation as well (probably to demonstrate how wide and varied puzzlemaking can be if constructors put their drugs minds to it).
I was stoked at the idea. So, we got our main-man Rex Parker to provide the answer. And if you solve both mine and Matt’s you can figure out what that seed entry was.
Share the puzzle. New one on Monday.
Happy anniversary. Fall of 96 is also when I started doing the NYT puzzle. Spring of 09 is when I stopped, mostly.
And dang, it must have made me rusty, because I had a hard time with this one. Some good straight-up misdirections (if that makes any sense). Had WEEDERS for SEEDERS, LIKE for POKE. I don’t get MAMA’S BOY, or the “masked” part of the clue anyway. That SE corner gave me fits.
Wait, is it the July 31 puzzle that has the secret theme answer, or the one he’s putting up later today? I suppose I could just solve yours now to find out, but I have work to do and all…
Great puzzle. Can’t wait to see what Matt does. And it’s funny, your first-ever crossword … it might as well have been on your “10 Bullshit Themes” list nowadays. I think it’s mentioned in “Gridlock” in the discussion of bullshit themes (along with the Hemingway puzzle and … a few others I don’t remember).
My OmniDownload puzzle didn’t grab this one today, so I fixed a little bug. It also now gets the NYT (assuming you have a username and password, of course).
http://alexboisvert.com/software.html#omni
Two “Easy” puzzles in a row? Is old age bringing a kinder, gentler BEQ?
Oh also–
I find it somewhat humorous that the NYT online puzzle archive starts precisely the day -after- the above puzzle ran.
Mazel Tov on your Bar Mitzvah. I don’t know if it’s Kosher to make a l’chaim with PBR (actually, it is). Today, you are a #2 pencil or a solving pen of your choice.
Jason “Dizzy” Gillespie is a famous Australian cricketer. His nickname is for the musician, but I didn’t know that. Was a major “huh” moment for me.
This is the first puzzle of yours I actually solved 🙂 They’re not as scary as I thought.
“It’s also worth noting that in a remarkable bit of symmetry, I will be dead exactly 13 years from today.”
Rolling on the floor, laughing
loved this one. MG’s was good, too, but i’m still declaring you the winner. at least for round 1.
This was a fantastic puzzle experiment and I’m grateful you both let me provide the seed answer. I would love to see (collegial) puzzle battles like this more often. Great insight into how constructors’ minds work.
I declare a tie — or I would, except Matt put me in his puzzle, and thus, as someone who is shamelessly self-promoting, I say Matt wins.
Sorry I was out of town when these puzzles dropped. I will promote them like crazy tomorrow.
rp
Not sure where you get easy from, that was 2 minutes slower than my Friday NYT time! But it was laugh-out-loud funny, and that hasn’t happened often for me. In this case, at 1A, 18A and 20A… I can’t not give it 5 stars, even if the 14A/2D Q and 27D/33A X are cheap… just saying. Cunning as a weasel at 42A, OUTDATED has same number of letters and shares the O. 63A a master-stroke BTW, especially as this Southern-hemispherian was trying to convert spring into autumn and getting himself into all sorts of knots!
Selling your first puzzle to the NYT is insane, someone repeating that feat today, even scarier.
BTW, Joanna where you from that you know cricket? Guessing most likely either England or Australia…
Puzzles with “The Wire” references automatically get 5 stars from me.
Because I read this line, I filled in DEAD for 1A.
I was under the impression that BEBOP was not considered ‘danceable’ by most, and since Diz had some latin inspired music, I was trying to fit sambas or mambos in there.
It turns out that people do dance to bebop, inasmuch as youtube delivers this Japanese dance competition:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_FFPu7tjIg
Australia. Are you a fellow Aussie and/or cricket fan?
If it wasn’t for the 5:30 start tomorrow I’d stay up and watch us bowl the Poms out…
Saffer: so I’m kinda neutral, the 5th test will (hopefully) be a cracker!
We need a cricket theme given the large commonwealth following on this blog!
The race goes not to the strongest or swiftest, but to the sycophantic.
There’ll be a knock on your door early tomorrow morning, Joon. I wouldn’t answer it if I were you.
Stopped mostly? Pray tell!
Didn’t realize Matt posted the puzzle in the afternoon. The link now reflects the correct puzzle.
Once again, if you haven’t already picked up a copy of that program, you should do so. Very much approved!
No, just had two easy one’s in the queue. Believe me, there’s some hairy monsters coming up.
An amazing factoid. While we’re here, on the day that the New York Times ran it’s first color photo on the cover of the front page, the puzzle was by yours truly.
I love this post, by the way. You kinda hafta realize I grew up worshiping Woody Allen and when I finally discovered Philip Roth I nearly died.
Come on now. That hurts. My puzzles aren’t scary. Scary good, maybe.
It’s funny cuz it’s true.
Thank you.
What, six theme answers wasn’t good enough for the King? And a Superhero theme at that? What’s more ass-kissing than that? Would I have won if I had genuflected?
Developing …
Love “The Wire.” We keep trying “Mad Men” in hopes that it will eventually “click” like “The Wire,” but so far no dice.
A+
Alex:
Thanks for a great program! Now I can overfeed my addiction and totally avoid my homework!
Yes, there needs to be more than just a round 1. Over at the CrosswordFiend forum I’ve set up a place for others to submit their puzzles using the magic theme entry.
http://bit.ly/GxlWV
I hope some other constructors get involved, because I’d like to see what themes other people would build around that entry.
My pleasure! Glad you like it.
Fun puzzle! I liked 20A and 54A in particular. And count me in as being DEAD-sure that 1A was DEAD.
Also, despite being 17, I have always solved on paper… until doing this one in AcrossLite. So this was also the first time timing myself… 16:36 or something, which I was pretty pleased with — if this puzzle is “easy,” I’m a little scared though.
Thanks for the fun puzzle experiment. I like Alex’s idea of trying to come up with many more puzzles with that same seed. I’ll brainstorm tonight.
All of that can mean only one thing: You got the shine.